Magnetic Pages Article | 1998-04-19 | 30KB | 105 lines
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'I wrote the following article for the'May 1993, third issue of my previous'diskmag, "Amy PD and Shareware Review".'It was written as an intro to the'reviews of two Amiga hypertext'programs, "Hyper", an AmigaGuide'viewer, and HT, a "full hypertext'system with graphics, sound, music and'animation built in". Six years down the'track, it's interesting to compare this'article with how the Internet has'actually turned out. (More comments at
the end of the article.)
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' Imagine if you will sitting down at'your Amiga one evening sometime in the'near future. You decide to read your'daily newspaper - it's icon is there on'Workbench. You click on it, look at the'world and local headlines but it's the'usual boring stuff so, as per usual,
you select the sports pages.' Amongst the sports headlines is a'report on the just run New York'marathon. As one of your favourite'athletes is taking part you click on'the race's headline and a window comes'up giving you access to the full report'of the marathon. Along with buttons for'text and graphics there's also one for'each video recording made of the race'plus various video compilations. Some'of the star athletes have a video all'to themselves but your favourite's not'one of them so you choose the video&showing edited highlights of the race.' A screen sized window opens and you'watch the race for a while and groan as'you get a glimpse of your athlete'obviously struggling - her face lined'with pain. Later in the race the'commentary mentions she's pulled out.'You keep watching anyway though the'winner is obviously going to be some'South American you've never heard of.'New York and it's people can be just as
interesting as the race.' As you watch a building catches your'eye that has a style you are not'familiar with despite a life-long'interest in architecture. You rewind'the video and pause it at the building.'It's an interesting one and you wonder'who the architect was. The building'hasn't a name but you notice a street'number on the door so you zoom in on'it, (ain't high-definition TV great), and are able to read the number.' You have the building's number but'what street is it in? You save a'picture of it for future reference, (by'tomorrow today's news will cost more),'and shrink the video window so you can'get at the race map. Once opened this'shows you where on the course the piece'of video you are viewing was shot.'Zooming in on the map gives you the'street name you are after. You save the'map too just to be on the safe side and
close the news.' But how to find out who designed it?'You open an encyclopedia, which you'keep in the directory called Every-'thing. It's an American one as it'may be a bit quicker than others even'though they would eventually lead you'to the same place you are heading,'though where that will be you don't'know yet. You select New York from the'encyclopedia and then a section on it's'architecture but you soon realise you'need the name of the architect first&before you can get much use out of it.' You go back to the New York section'and select government departments and'from that the surveyors' maps. You find'your street in one of them and there,'along with the date of construction and'a lot of other information, is the'architect's name. You don't save this'map however as for some reason it's
quite expensive.' You go back to the Architecture of'New York and this time you find your'architect. He must be a bit obscure as'there's not much on him. A couple of'buildings are shown but they have'nothing in common with the one in New'York. The most recent work of his'mentioned was done in Boston nine years'ago. You're getting a bit bored with'this but as a last resort you check out'the Architects listed in the Boston'phone directory. There's lots of course'so you do a text search for you man's'name and it's found, plus associates.'Phone them? Nah - it's the middle of'the night in Boston at the moment and
it's time for dinner anyway.' The above scenario is what hypertext'is supposed to make possible one day.'The concept began in 1945 with'President Roosevelt's science adviser'Vannevar Bush. He envisaged a machine'called Memex using microfilm and'photocells. This was to allow it's'users to search through text, drawings'and photographs and to follow links'between them, record them and to take
notes.' The Memex was never made but in 1950'Douglas Engelbart, a thirty-five year'old electrical engineer in Californian,'had a brainwave while driving to work.'This is how he described it to Howard'Rheingold as told in Rheingold's book'Virtual Reality. "When I first heard'about computers, I understood from my'radar experience that if these machines'can show you information on printouts,'they could show that information on a'screen. When I saw the connection'between a television-like screen, an'information processor, and a medium for'representing symbols to a person, it'all tumbled together. I went home and'sketched a system in which computers'would draw symbols on the screen and I'could steer through different'information spaces with knobs and'levers and look at words and data and'graphics in different ways. I imagined'ways you could expand it to a theatre-'like environment where you could sit'with colleagues and exchange'information on many levels'simultaneously. God! Think of how that'would let you cut loose in solving
problems!"' Engelbart left his job and went'looking for work with computers (there'were only two in California in 1950)'but it would not be until 1964 before'he got his chance to bring his dream to'reality. While working at the Stanford'Research Institute he was offered'funding by the Advanced Research'Projects Agency, a US government agency'set up to sponsor way-out ideas as a'response to the Soviet Sputnik'launches. Engelbart set up what was'known as the Augmentation Research'Center (ARC) which was to last for'twelve years. The hypertext system his'team created was called On-Line System'and is still in use at McDonnell-#Douglas under the name of Augment. ' Hypertext needed a host of other'advances in computing and at ARC they'invented, among other things, word-'processing, outline processing,'computer conferencing, electronic'mailing systems, multiple windows and'the mouse! Sound familiar? Yep - the'world as we know it. This was'successfully demonstrated at something'called the Fall Joint Computer'Conference in 1968! There's a direct'link from ARC to PARC to the Apple
Lisa.' The word hypertext doesn't however'come from Engelbart but from Theodor'Nelson, the man behind the grandest of'all hypertext concepts, Project Xanadu.'Nelson's idea, developed around the'same time as Engelbart's, is for a'store of all the worlds literature,'film and sound archives to be available'on-line and containing links to allow'those accessing it to search freely&within it. This isn't quite ready yet.' The two programs reviewed here are'not quite in Xanadu's league although a'quite powerful front end could be built'around HT. Note that these reviews are'not a head to head encounter as the two'programs are addressing different'aspects hypertext. Hyper is a reader of'Commodore's AmigaGuide and is bounded'by AmigaGuide's specifications and what'information is available on them while'HT has been designed from scratch and'is a complete system in it's own right.' One thing I noticed while'researching this article (and if Xanadu'was up and running it would have been a'lot easier - searching dozens of'magazines for just one article is slow'- and distracting) is that some'hypertext programs have what's known as'a Graphical Browser which is a kind of'map of your path through the many'hypertext documents you may have'opened. Neither of the two programs'reviewed here have this though both'have ARexx ports so you may be able to'tack one on. Even in the small demo'provided with HT it's possible to$forget how you got to where you are.' Well that's a small and potted'history of hypertext. If anyone's'produced any PD hypertext databases I'would be very interested in seeing and'reviewing them. And if you want to'produce one, HT is a very good place to'start, unless you happen to have access'to the AmigaGuide docs and a multiple'window reader for it and know that'AmigaGuide is better than HT. Just what
is known about AmigaGuide?
'References... Byte magazine, October'1988; "Virtual Reality" by Howard'Rheingold, Secker & Warburg; "The Dream!Machine", part three, by the BBC.
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'A notable difference between my'scenario and the Internet today is I'didn't envisage a browser being used,'it all being done from the Workbench'using icons and directories. However,'as this seems to be a planned feature'of Windows98, (and who knows, perhaps'even Workbench 3.5 or 4), it may still
come to pass.
'Video archives are already here - for'those with machines with plenty of'grunt. Actually, I've got an MPEG'player, but I've only managed to get it'to work once, and a 2meg movie took#about twenty minutes to download...
'The cost of accessing stuff was'prominent in the article, and more so'than is in the current Internet. That'said, most newspapers expect you to$subscribe for their online versions.
'Search engines didn't feature, you'seemingly having to find things by'moving up and down directories. Nor,'curiously, did email, the phone being'seen as the obvious means of contacting
someone.
'While I didn't know it at the time, the'World Wide Web was already starting to'form and Mosaic v1.0 (for X-Windows),'the first popular browser, had been'released in May 1993, a month before'AmyPD with this article in came out.'(Oh yes, and 17-Bit didn't think the'issue was good enough for their PD'library, because "the reviews were too
old".)
'So, all in all, not to bad a'prediction. Though I never expected it
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